Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters #1

Cheesy? Yes. Corny? Yes. But, I mean, I gotta hand it to them. This is a comic for kids. If I were 8 years old, I might have like it. And you know, that’s how you build up the next generation of comic book fans. It hooks them at an early age and makes them life long readers.

That being said, I can’t be too harsh. The majority of the comic is taken up by a battle with a giant bug that was exposed to the same chemical, Flexarium, that turned Stretch and his friends into the super heroes that they are now.

It would be easy to dismiss this as a simple kids’ story, but it did show possibility for depth. From Stretch’s back story about his mother’s death and his father’s overly controlling measures to the antagonistic government’s refusal to allow Rook the chance to study the mutant insect, there is potential.

But that introduces a plot hole in my opinion. He desperately wants to study the insect because he’s never seen how Flexarium affects species other than humans. The government wants to cremate it. But he has Flexarium. He has access to insects (I mean, who doesn’t). So, why not just infect a bug with Flexarium in a lab-controlled environment? I don’t know.

The artwork was great. Very cheerful colors.

This is a fun book for kids. Probably not going to interest many serious readers, though.